Eve Seuntjens
@eveseuntjens.bsky.social
Developmental neurobiology and brain evolution beyond vertebrates Suckered into cephalopod and killifish biology Full Professor of Biology at KU Leuven, Belgium
Totally worth it to lose some sleep and watch our Red Devils win this game! 🇧🇪
James Nalton@jdnalton.bsky.social · last mo.Belgium players mocking the US and Trump's meddling in the World Cup by doing the Trump dance after scoring the 4th goal against the USMNT
What a loss. He trained and inspired so many scientists. His energy was legendary, getting old was not for him. That makes it all so unreal. RIP Frank.
Lluis Montoliu@lluismontoliu.bsky.social · last mo.Frank Grosveld, born in 1948, passed away last Friday. He was a colossal scientist in the transcriptional control of gene expression during development and helped us understand the complex regulation of beta-globin genes. His work will remain as a reference. May he rest in peace.
Annual killifish continue to surprise us: they make neutrophils before almost every other cell type, even before gastrulation. Neutrophils usually arise from the lateral plate mesoderm (forming in cyan), but in killifish they are already patrolling around the embryo in gold. tinyurl.com/killiphil
As a scientist, I find it troubling we first do the experiments and *then* we talk about the ethics of it (but first we publish it high ofc)🧪
Nature@nature.com · last mo.For the second time this month, a team of researchers has reported harnessing a precise gene-editing technique to alter the DNA of human embryos go.nature.com/4vwIXrO
Did you know many PIs in Europe can hire PhD students to these programmes at any time when they have funding available? It is therefore worth it to just apply to your dream lab even if there is no official call or job opening.
Vienna BioCenter Scientific Training@vbcscitraining.bsky.social · 2mo agoEuropean PhD programmes are fully funded — you're an employee with a real salary ✅ Fully funded — you're an employee ✅ International labs, English-speaking ✅ Career training built in ✅ Cities you'll love Symposium Sept 10 → doctoralinsights.at #DocInsights #PhD
European PhD programmes are fully funded — you're an employee with a real salary ✅ Fully funded — you're an employee ✅ International labs, English-speaking ✅ Career training built in ✅ Cities you'll love Symposium Sept 10 → doctoralinsights.at #DocInsights #PhD
Do you work with scRNAseq data in non-model organisms that have less-than-stellar gene annotations? ✨ 🧬 You might be interested in GeneExt, a nifty little tool by @zolotarg.bsky.social in @arnausebe.bsky.social's lab, published in #Bioinformatics earlier this year. #singlecell #transcriptomics
GeneExt: a gene model extension tool for enhanced single-cell RNA-seq analysis
AbstractMotivation. Incomplete gene models negatively impact single-cell gene expression quantification. This is particularly true in non-model species whe
academic.oup.com
New in @science.org ...since our first discoveries of early tetrapods, they have been thought of as "amphibians" characterized by aquatic larvae. But is this true? For the first time, we report exceptional fossils of stem tetrapod babies that upend this paradigm. 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Direct development of stem tetrapods across the fin-to-limb transition
Modern amphibians are characterized by an aquatic larval stage that ends abruptly with a period of widespread tissue remodeling (metamorphosis) upon transition to terrestrial adulthood. A transient la...
science.org
The new OrthoFinder paper is out now! In this new work, we introduce major advances in accuracy and scalability, allowing analysis on much larger datasets www.nature.com/articles/s41... github.com/OrthoFinder/...
OrthoFinder: improved phylogenetic orthology inference with enhanced accuracy and scalability - Nature Methods
The updated OrthoFinder v3 software boosts accuracy and scalability in phylogenetic orthology inference with massive and diverse datasets.
nature.com
1/11 When we think about learning, we think about brains. Neurons. Animals. But what if learning began much earlier? Our paper in PRXLife, led by @maorknak.bsky.social explores whether a unicell relative of animals can use environmental cues to anticipate future stress. 🧵 Link: go.aps.org/4vAU56R
What happens if you stitch two halfs of different flatworm species together? This Frankenstein experiment led to the amazing discovery of an atom bomb cell. Both the story and the people leading the work are fantastic. Must-read!
DevBioStanford@devbiostanford.bsky.social · 2mo agoBo Wang (Associate Professor by courtesy, of Developmental Biology) and Christine Jacobs-Wagner (a Dev Bio alumni) have shown that planaria have “ruptoblasts”, cells that can kill invading bacteria by blowing themselves up, taking the bacteria out with them! 🧨💥 news.stanford.edu/stories/2026...
Bo Wang (Associate Professor by courtesy, of Developmental Biology) and Christine Jacobs-Wagner (a Dev Bio alumni) have shown that planaria have “ruptoblasts”, cells that can kill invading bacteria by blowing themselves up, taking the bacteria out with them! 🧨💥 news.stanford.edu/stories/2026...
Flatworms reveal explosive new type of immune cell
The discovery that hormonal triggers cause “ruptoblast” cells in flatworms to detonate and destroy surrounding cells within minutes could inspire new ideas in medical science.
news.stanford.edu
Do you know an outstanding aquarist? We're hiring a Senior Aquarist to help run our cephalopod facility at Columbia University. Our team maintains a colony of 250+ cuttlefish, develops new husbandry techniques (inc transgenics) & studies cuttlefish camouflage and social behavior. 1/3 [Pls repost!]
Perfectly fitting preprint to today’s #RSCDB Spring Meeting’s theme on cortical development. Beautiful story on amphibian cortical development logic. Congrats to @astridd93.bsky.social and the @matosches.bsky.social team! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Finally, the mainstream media has been forced to acknowledge the unbalanced microcentrifuge incident from Project Hail Mary, a scandal that shook the world of molecular biology when the movie was first released weeks ago.
The hill I will die on: If Hollywood blockbusters must dabble in science, can’t they get the small stuff right? | Helen Pilcher
Project Hail Mary, Jurassic Park: from dino-mosquitoes to a spaceship’s roar, pointless mistakes on the scientific details make me wince, says science writer Helen Pilcher
theguardian.com
🚨 We discovered a new mode of Hox gene regulation in annelids! 🪱 A distal enhancer acts as a "global control region", lifting Hox genes from Polycomb repression. This is reminiscent of Hox gene control in vertebrates, but the two modes likely evolved convergently. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Convergent evolution of cluster-wide Hox gene regulation in Bilateria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.18.725834v1
If you are crossing mice to get quadruple KO and you think that’s hard, read this amazing tour de force! Such a beautiful example of heterochrony!
Ali Seleit@aliseleit.bsky.social · 3mo ago(1/15) Thrilled to share new Evo-Devo work where we address the molecular, cellular & morphometric basis of an extreme axis segmentation program in the Japanese eel — an animal that forms 120 vertebrae.
Come join us in Liège for the 4th Neural Stem Cells and Cortex Development meeting in June! We will select 5 slots for short talks from the abstracts. Or you can win a poster prize. Submit your abstract today! Hope to meet you there!
The Royal Belgian Society for Cell and Developmental Biology@rbscdb.bsky.social · 3mo agoCheck out the fantastic line-up for our Spring Meeting on June 5th including @steinaerts.bsky.social, @borrell-lab.bsky.social, @silvianeuro.bsky.social, Simon Hippenmeyer, @idoiaeu.bsky.social and Jin-Wu Tsai. Registration & abstract submission deadline May 15th. www.bscdb.be/spring-meeting
In honor of #StarWarsDay, let's play a guessing game! Is it a podracer or a #zebrafish embryo? You be the judge! 🤪 #MayTheFourthBeWithYou 🧪
“I find your lack of ctenes disturbing.”Credit original #sciart to @joanjsoto.bsky.social. #MayTheCtenoforceBeWithYou #MayTheFourthBeWithYou #StarWarsDay #ctenophore #scicomm
We are looking for outstanding scientists to develop ambitious research programs in molecular and cellular biology, with special interest in multidisciplinary projects and computational biology.More info: www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr #MolecularBiology #CellBiology #ComputationalBiology #TeamLeaders#I2BC
The @vbcscitraining.bsky.social is looking a PhD Program Manager! Needless to say this is an incredible important position. So please apply if you want to help us find, recruit and train the next generation of scientists! RT appreciated!
Vienna BioCenter Scientific Training@vbcscitraining.bsky.social · 4mo agoExciting job offer: PhD Program Manager. Lead recruitment, support PhD candidates, and shape doctoral training at a top international life sciences campus. https://ow.ly/3YkN50YAuGM Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Max Perutz Labs Vienna, IMP, Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology
The Frenster Lab is here! 🍾 I am so excited to start my #EmmyNoether funded group at @uni-freiburg.de this summer. Our group studies #CellCompetition dynamics during embryonic development using #gastruloids from multiple species. Thanks to the @dfg.de for creating this opportunity! FrensterLab.com
Frenster Lab | Cell Competition Dynamics
We study Cell Competition during Embryonic Development using 3D Gastruloids at the University of Freiburg. We view cells as interactive societies in development and cancer. Research, stem cells, Gastr...
frensterlab.com
Our Spring PhD call is OPEN! 30+ fully funded positions across diverse life science disciplines. Explore projects in Stem Cells, Development: www.vbcphd.at Apply by 9 April 2025 Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Max Perutz Labs Vienna, IMP, Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology
We are looking for a new group leader to join the IGH (Montpellier, France). I can’t wait to meet my future colleague! Apply :-) More infos here: igh.cnrs.fr/join-igh-as-...
Join IGH as Group Leader - IGH
The Institute of Human Genetics invites applications for a Principal Investigator position in its main research areas. Read more...
igh.cnrs.fr
The new Vienna BioCenter Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Program (VIP³) is here! We have 8 fully-funded positions for scientists with a PhD in biology, chemistry, physics, bioinformatics etc. The call is open! More information: training.vbc.ac.at/post-docs/vi... #VBCPostDoc
